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CNN Live At Daybreak

Today Deadline for Top Executives to Swear to Accuracy of Recent Financial Reports

Aired August 14, 2002 - 05:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And today, 5:30 Eastern Time, that is the deadline for the nation's top executives to swear to the accuracy of their recent financial reports. This comes just one day after President Bush held an economic forum that zeroed in on fiscal responsibility.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My administration will spend what is truly needed and not a dollar more.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Bush's stern message of fiscal responsibility is the centerpiece of his economic forum. Today, the president thumbed his nose at Congress, announced that the $5 billion law makers signed, tacked on as a take it or leave it spending deal, was gone.

BUSH: I understand their position. And today they're going to learn mine. We'll spend none of it.

MALVEAUX: The economic forum was billed by the administration as an opportunity for the president to discuss his economic agenda with more than 240 participants, eight cabinet members and a who's who of the country's top CEOs. In the technical language of investor giant Charles Schwab...

CHARLES SCHWAB: We're reuniting investors with the simple principles of asset allocation and diversification.

MALVEAUX: To the plain speak of great grandma Flora Green...

FLORA GREEN, FORUM PARTICIPANT: We want to make our own decisions.

MALVEAUX: The president took it all in, but also put out his own economic agenda, calling for a crackdown on corporate corruption, terrorism insurance to boost construction projects and energy policy that makes the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil, permanent tax cuts, increased minority home ownership and a cap on medical liability lawsuits.

But Democratic law makers, none of them invited, called the forum nothing more than an infomercial for Republicans facing midterm elections. Democrats say their proposal to hold an economic summit in January was roundly rejected by the administration. And they point out that many of the forum's participants are big time Republican donors who are in lockstep with the president's agenda.

Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel says in a released statement: "President Bush's so-called economic forum is a public relations exercise designed to insulate Republican leaders from the growing sense that the country is on the wrong track."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And that report filed by White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

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